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Sunday, December 20, 2009

Lee delivers in Game 5 at Citizens Bank Park in October Before the Phillies made their blockbuster announcement that they had acquired Roy Halladay, I posted a blog post here that spelled out why Roy Halladay wouldn’t be coming here. It was money which stood in the way and the combination of what the Toronto Blue Jays would want from the Phillies that would make this deal an almost impossible deal to complete. “It would take a super star to make this deal” is what I wrote, and being that Rollins, Utley, and Howard were virtually untouchable, my thoughts never turned to Cliff Lee being that ‘super star’.

Cliff Lee brought a very different approach to this team, he brought a zeal to play. A guy who ran out to the mound every inning he pitched, not just strolled out there like a pampered millionaire out there to make it look good. He had all of the ingredients that Philly fans love, a dedication that everyone picked up on and admired. When he took the ball to the mound, we knew what we were getting. The 2009 run to the playoffs and the playoffs themselves was made possible largely on the talents of Cliff Lee. After the Phillies acquired him, there was a calming effect to the starting rotation. Not that Roy Halladay won’t do the same thing, but Lee proved his value to the Phillies again and again this past season. Cliff Lee was 4-0 with a 1.56 ERA in the playoffs and World Series in 2009, there's almost no way to do any better than this.

If the Phillies would have traded a Cliff Lee for a Roy Halladay straight up, I would have been happier with this deal. I would have thought more of the whole situation. The fact that the deal went down the way it did leaves some unanswered questions in my mind, and the minds of other Phillies fans that wondered why? Why did we do what we deal off Cliff Lee who had at least one more full season under contract with the Phillies. If he left after next season, the Phillies would have received two top picks in the draft as compensation. I don’t think he would have left the Phillies after 2010 but that is now a moot point.

We’re going to talk more about this trade and everything that made it on this week’s edition of the ‘Phillies Talk’ podcast that will post here to this blog on Tuesday night by 9 PM (and also on iTunes) , our special guest will be Scott Lauber, of the Wilmington News Journal, who will help us make sense of this deal and some upcoming deals the Phillies may be making.

Here's Cliff Lee's record in the Playoffs and World Series for the Phillies in 2009:

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